GHSA-gfj5-979r-92pw
@acastellon/auth: Authentication bypass via spoofable headers in validateToken()
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | @acastellon/auth | < 2.3.0 | 2.3.0 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
@acastellon/auth v2.2.0 appears to allow an unauthenticated authentication bypass in validateToken() through spoofable auth-user and Host request headers.
The validateToken middleware contains a service-to-service bypass for auth-user: service-brother when req.get('host').startsWith(getHostName()). Both values involved in the check can be influenced by an unauthenticated HTTP client: auth-user is a request header, and Host is also client-controlled. As a result, a remote unauthenticated attacker can send a request with crafted headers and bypass token validation before the normal legacy/JWT/OIDC validation logic runs.
Impact:
An attacker may be able to access routes protected by validateToken() without a valid token. In deployments where downstream services trust auth-user or is-* headers, this may also lead to privilege escalation.
Affected package:
@acastellon/auth v2.2.0
Affected code:
auth.js, validateToken()
The issue is related to the service-brother bypass and getHostName() check.
Example request:
```
GET /protected HTTP/1.1
Host: <configured CNAME or hostname>
auth-user: service-brother
is-admin: true
```
Expected behavior:
The request should require a valid authentication token.
Actual behavior:
The middleware calls next() before token validation.
Fix implemented in v2.3.0+:
Removed the spoofable bypass.
Always sanitize incoming auth-user and is-* headers.
Added mTLS client certificate based service auth (with optional TRUSTED_MTLS_SERVICES allowlist).
Updated consumers (rest, graphql, dns-client) for mTLS support.
Unit tests added for sanitization + mTLS path.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.